PEgan1983

I had been keeping guppies for a few months now and as a kid my family always had guppies. Tonight I went down to Petsmart to see if they had any cardnal tertas and as I was looking through the fish section they had listed that guppies should have salt. I've never heard of this. I never have had salt in with my guppies and they have always lived for a long time and reproduced a lot! I just want to see if anyone has ever heard of this. I was a bit shocked.

LilMollieBreeder

I've heard of mollies, swords, and platys don't mind salt I would research on google or wait here for someone who knows for sure and welcome to fishlore

Butterfly

I've never used salt with any of my freshwater fish and they do fine. Salt is better kept for use as a medication for certain illnesses. I'm sure they aren't keeping them in salt because all their tanks are connected.
carol

PEgan1983

Thats exactly what I thought. I have heard to help with different diseases salt does help, I go to a really great little pet store whose owner knows like everything, but they were closed tonight. Thank you for the welcome lilmolliebreeder.

brianl78

I work at Pet Smart, and we do not use salt in our tanks. We tell customers they can use it, because it is good for the fish. It keeps diseases down.

Butterfly

Welcome to FishLore Brianl78
A well maintained tank(regular water changes and substrate vacuums) and quarantining new fish will go a long way toward avoiding diseases.
Carol

LilMollieBreeder

so true!

PEgan1983

Water changes and constant checking the water parameters and quarantining is exactly how I keep my fish healthy. Why would it say on the tag for the guppies at Pet Smart that they require salt rather than recommend salt for disease prevention, Brianl? This might make people new to the hobby avoid guppies since most people beginning the hobby want something easy. i believe that a guppy is a great fish for beginners since they are easy if you get one sex. I just feel that with the sign saying that salt is required misinforms customers.

Chief_waterchanger

Because, Trish, (no offense to Brian, because it is just a policy he has to follow) if they can sell you a container of "aquarium salt" for outrageous amounts of money then they make more money.

clinton1621

Just make sure you also let everyone know that aquarium salt is NOT GOOD for all fish, in fact it is HARMFUL to ALL corys, MOST scaleless fish and invertebrates, and almost ALL live plants!

PEgan1983

Exactly! The sales is always what it comes down to. I've been working in a bank for three years now and when I started it was all about customer service and not sales. Now they are all about sales, sales and more sales to customer who don't need the products they are selling and that is way I left that job!

sirdarksol

They likely say that because guppies can live in brackish water. Wild guppies can live anywhere from high enough up a river for it to be fresh to far down an estuary, where the water is mostly salt. I keep a brackish tank, but plan on putting the guppies I'll be getting in my freshwater.

Some guppies have actually been shown to be able to live long and healthy lives in full saltwater (not a suggestion, by the way).

brianl78

i don't no don't shot the messanger i don't use salt myself i really tell people they don't need it to live if they ask i really just started there maybe like 3 weeks so i don't no why it says i don't make they tags it also says the mollys and platys like they salt also i use it at some but not to much but anyways i was saying the fact that we do not use salt in our tanks at the store thank you and don't shoot the messanger please

clinton1621

I think everyone just gets upset about stores telling people something is "good" just to make sales, it may be good for some fish but they always forget to tell people that its also bad for others.... then you get home and your fish get sick or die because of it, so nobody meant to attack you personally, its the stores that tell people to make the sale that we were attacking.... however it pays for you to give sound advice since you sell fish at the store, you will have much happier customers and make way more sales than with just trying to sell people something

Butterfly

It's ok brian there will be no messenger shooting on FishLore but some times we do want to know why something is. And if you don't know something thats ok too
carol

Bragg

I got my first two fish (two male Tequila Sunrise Delta guppies) from PetSmart yesterday. I added two tablespoons of salt to 12 gallon tank. The guppies seem happy. However I want to have live plants maybe even a cory catfish and now I see salt is harmful to cory catfish and plants. I don't plan on using anymore salt. I am wondering if with regular water changes the salt content will eventually decrease? I am new to having an aquarium, as you can probably figure out.

Butterfly

Yes regular water changes will remove the salt if you don't add more
carol